By Schubert Ogden
The Notebooks of Schubert Ogden
I just realized that given Marxsen's definition of the New Testament as "the oldest preserved book of the church's sermons," the suggestion of Ruether (as well as, perhaps, others) that what is wanted, so far as feminist theology is concerned, is something like a "third testament' in which women would speak out of their own experiences and write new stories, makes perfectly good sense.
Marxsen himself makes clear that, given his definition, no limit on the canon can be justified materially or theologically, but only technically or practically (NTBK: 58; cf. ET: 101 f.). But, then, in addition to the first volume of the church's sermons, there could be a second, a third, and so on. And why shouldn't at least one of these additional volumes be just such a "third testament" as Ruether calls for?
16 May 1997
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